Overview

Jurisdiction of Supply in Present Times

of the Prolonged Vacancy of the Apostolic See

Introduction
Certainty
Status quaestionis
The Plan
The Matter of the Chapters
Conclusion

List of Sources

1. Introduction

Dear faithful,

This study was requested of me by my superior, and holy obedience therefore set me to work.

Apart from that I am highly motivated in this project, because its subject determines my life and my eternity, and I imagine that this is also the case for many other persons, true faithful of Our Lord Jesus Christ and sons of His Church. However small she has become in these times of apostasy, we continue to believe in Him and in Her:

“I believe… in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.

I believe… in the holy Catholic Church”

(Taken from the Apostles’ Creed, as it was and is universally recited in the Catholic Church)

Indeed, we are at war (“I will put enmities between thee and the Woman”, cf. Gen. 3, 15) and we are “an army set in array” (“the Church militant”, cf. the Roman Catechism and the Canticle of Canticles 6, 3 / 6, 9). To vanquish an enemy who is not only the demons but also their earthly supporters, a good strategy and effective tactics are necessarily required. One of the indispensable conditions for victory — and total victory over all our enemies is promised to us: “she (the woman) shall crush thy head” (cf. Gen. 3, 15) — is to know one’s enemies and one’s friends. One’s friends, in order to coordinate our efforts; one’s enemies, in order to be aware of their strengths and their weaknesses: their strengths, so as to organize a sufficient resistance in order to stop them and annihilate them; their weaknesses, so as to know where to strike them with success. All this with the grace of God, without which we can do nothing (“without Me you can do nothing”, cf. Jn 15, 5).

While being deeply convinced that God permits evil with a view to a greater good, we wish to know evil sufficiently in order to neutralize it, and the good in order to realize it, always with His grace.

Summa theologiae, I, q. 2, a. 3, ad 1, citing Augustine, Enchiridion, c. 11.

This is the motive and the purpose of this study on the jurisdiction of the present Church. In doing this we intend to do nothing other than His Holy Will, under the reign of the King and the Queen of the heavenly armies.

2. Certainty

In order to avoid falling into interminable opinions that would risk dividing us still further, in a context of uncertainty and of a crisis without apparent issue, I strictly limit myself to what pertains to the faith, to the deposit of the faith, to the definitions of the infallible Magisterium, to the dogmas, to the unanimity of the Fathers of the Church and to the common doctrine of authors of weight, in short to certainties, relying on the promise of Our Lord Jesus Christ:

“Seek and you shall find”

Gospel according to Saint Matthew 7, 7 and Saint Luke 11, 9

I shall necessarily proceed by stages because the subject is very vast.

If it is inevitable to appeal to opinions for lack of certainty, I shall clearly indicate that they are only opinions.

3. Status quaestionis

The general itinerary will be the following:

In order to establish the necessity and the right to jurisdiction of supply, it is fitting to demonstrate the existence of a present situation rendering impossible recourse to ordinary jurisdiction which does not exist, as well as the necessity of having a jurisdiction, an indispensable government for this perfect, indefectible and immortal society which is the Church.

This situation is none other than an unprecedented crisis in the history of the Church, provoked by the failure of the papacy by reason of the public heresies of Paul VI (and according to some of John XXIII).

The deep causes of this present crisis, from 1964 to our days, reside in a secular infiltration of the worst enemies of the Church, who have succeeded in realizing a total usurpation of the highest power, secretly and carefully effected within the Church. These last have progressively replaced the Church by another which resembles her, but which is a masterly falsification.

Meanwhile, of course, the true Church, although composed of a small number of faithful, continues miraculously her existence and her necessary and useful functions, by the will of God to pursue the redemption of men until the end of times. I write “miraculously” because, humanly speaking, the Church is lost: reduced to such extremities, she could not survive without the help of God.

4. The Plan

The itinerary will follow a development according to clearly established truths or facts. Broadly the course will be as follows:

4.1. The Church is a visible, perfect society and necessarily governed by legitimate authority.

The Church, founded by Christ, is a supernatural but real society, composed of men (souls and bodies), and consequently necessarily ruled by a visible authority capable of acting. Like every perfect society, she must dispose of a government in order to subsist and to fulfill her end by using her means: to lead souls to eternal salvation by the means of grace developed by her founder, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Indeed, Leo XIII teaches expressly in Immortale Dei, of 1 November 1885, that the Church is “societas genere et iure perfecta”, that is to say a society perfect by her nature and by her right, possessing in herself the means necessary to her existence and to her action.

4.2. The Roman Pontiff who is a manifest heretic loses his office

According to Saint Robert Bellarmine and other great doctors, a pope who falls into manifest heresy ceases by himself to be pope and head of the Church, just as he ceases to be a member of the body of the Church. A manifest heretic cannot in fact be the head of a body of which he is no longer a member. Consequently, the supreme jurisdiction attached to the pontifical office likewise ceases.

One must however distinguish manifest heresy from occult heresy. Bellarmine teaches expressly that a secret heretic can still belong exteriorly to the body of the Church and that a secretly heretical pope therefore remains pope so long as his heresy does not separate him exteriorly from the Church.

Bellarmine adds that, according to the teaching of the holy Fathers whom he invokes, “heretics are not only outside the Church, but lose ipso facto ecclesiastical jurisdiction and dignity”. Reference: Saint Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice, bk. II, ch. 30, in De Controversiis, second edition, Ingolstadt, 1588.

This solution has not however been unanimously retained by the theologians. Cajetan holds another opinion: the pope who has become a heretic does not lose, according to him, the pontificate by the sole fact of heresy, but must be separated from it by an intervention of the Church. The latter does not however exercise over the pontificate a superior authority: her intervention is ministerial relative to the separation of the person from the pontificate. Saint Robert Bellarmine will examine this opinion and reject it, maintaining that the manifestly heretical pope ceases by himself to be pope and head of the Church.

Reference: Thomas de Vio Cajetanus, De comparatione auctoritatis Papae et Concilii, cc. XIX-XXII, in Scripta theologica, vol. I, ed. Vincentius M. Iacobus Pollet, O.P., Rome, Institutum “Angelicum”, 1936, Latin.

4.3. In the prolonged vacancy, the Church or Christ supplies the jurisdiction

In case of necessity for the salvation of souls, the Church (by her law or by equity) or Christ (as Head) supplies, but always according to the limited principles of law and of moral theology.

The indefectibility promised to the Church forbids that she remain without government. Holy Providence watches over the execution of the divine promises. If the normal, visible and official organs are neutralized by usurpation or apostasy, it will be necessary to demonstrate whether and in what manner the divine assistance promised to the Church comprises, in such a situation, the supply of the jurisdiction necessary to her conservation and to the accomplishment of her mission.

Indeed, the general necessity of an extraordinary jurisdiction in a universal and prolonged vacancy will therefore be demonstrated by theological and canonical principles.

This extraordinary jurisdiction must not however be identified purely and simply with the technical supply of jurisdiction provided by canon 209. In the latter, he who does not habitually possess jurisdiction receives it, by supply of the Church, for the particular act in which it is necessary; the act accomplished, he does not retain it. Wernz-Vidal expressly qualifies this supply as a case of extraordinary and per accidens delegation and explains it by the common good.

– F. X. Wernz – P. Vidal, Ius Canonicum, t. II, De Personis, 3rd ed., Rome, Typis Pontificiae Universitatis Gregorianae, 1943, nn. 378-380, pp. 439-441, Latin.

Miaskiewicz confirms and specifies this limitation. The supply of canon 209 does not render habitually competent him who does not possess jurisdiction. When the conditions provided by this canon are realized, the necessary jurisdiction is conferred in actu for the determined jurisdictional act; it is possessed neither before nor after this act. This supply presupposes, according to canon 209, either common error, or a positive and probable doubt of law or of fact. It does not therefore constitute, by itself, the foundation of a habitual or universal jurisdiction.

Reference: Francis S. Miaskiewicz, Supplied Jurisdiction According to Canon 209: An Historical Synopsis and Commentary, Catholic University of America Canon Law Studies, no. 122, Washington, D.C., The Catholic University of America Press, 1940, pp. 24-28, English.

We shall see the validity of the sacrament of order and the liceity of the subjects of the jurisdiction of supply.

4.4. Catholic bishops exercise the jurisdiction of supply for the common good

This supplied jurisdiction is not a human invention, but an effect of the promise of Christ who remains with His Church until the consummation of the ages. It will be necessary to determine whether this extraordinary jurisdiction can be exercised by the bishops who have remained faithful to the Catholic faith, assisted by their priests, and to specify exactly which acts are permitted or imposed upon them by the necessity of the salvation of souls and of the common good of the Church.

The validity of episcopal consecration does not however suffice, by itself, to establish the possession of a jurisdiction. The sacramental order and the power of jurisdiction must be distinguished. It will therefore be necessary to demonstrate separately the juridical or theological foundation of the extraordinary jurisdiction claimed.

We shall demonstrate this thesis, after examination of the canonists and theologians, as well as the following thesis.

4.5. The Papacy is a divine institution

This situation obliges us to study whether, and under what conditions, Catholic bishops can or must concur in a legitimate pontifical election, notably in the line of an imperfect general council.

The supreme pontificate is not a human institution. Saint Robert Bellarmine teaches that the succession of Peter was instituted by Christ and is of divine right, because Christ established in Peter a pontificate destined to last until the end of the world. The ordinary office of governing the whole Church with supreme power is therefore immediately established by God. Reference: Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice, bk. II, ch. 12.

One must moreover distinguish the human designation of the person and the conferral of the pontificate. According to Bellarmine, the electors designate and dispose the elected person, but the latter receives from God the form of the pontificate. The authority of the electors is therefore not exercised over a pope already constituted, but over the person who is to receive from God the pontificate. Reference: Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice, bk. II, ch. 30.

Cajetan here brings a complementary distinction. An intervention of the Church relative to the person united or destined to the pontificate does not imply that the Church possesses an authority superior to the pontificate itself. In his treatment of the case of the heretical pope, Cajetan thus distinguishes the superior authority from the ministerial intervention of the Church relative to the union of the person with the pontificate. This distinction clarifies the possibility of an ecclesial intervention concerning the person of the pontiff without impairing the supremacy of pontifical authority. Reference: Cajetan, De comparatione auctoritatis Papae et Concilii, cc. XX-XXI, ed. cit.

The determination of the electors of the Roman Pontiff must also be distinguished from the divine institution of the pontificate itself. Wernz-Vidal teaches that the right of electing to ecclesiastical offices belongs to those to whom the Church has conceded it by common or particular law, and specifies expressly that the exclusive right of the College of Cardinals to elect the Roman Pontiff is not of divine right. One must therefore distinguish the necessity, of divine right, of the perpetuity of the pontificate, and the determination, of ecclesiastical right, of the persons to whom the election of the Roman Pontiff normally belongs. Reference: F. X. Wernz – P. Vidal, Ius Canonicum, t. II, De Personis, 3rd ed., Rome, Typis Pontificiae Universitatis Gregorianae, 1943, n. 248, p. 312, Latin.

It will be necessary to distinguish: right of necessity, moral convocation of the bishops, representation of the teaching Church, conditions of visibility, moral certainty, universal peaceful acceptance.

This question will be examined further on in the light of the great theologians and canonists, notably Cajetan, Bellarmine, Suarez, John of Saint Thomas, Ballerini and Wernz-Vidal, in order to determine the principles applicable to pontifical election in case of disappearance or impossibility of the electors normally designated.

Because the papacy is of divine institution and because, according to Bellarmine, the pontificate instituted in Peter must last until the end of the world, it will be necessary to seek whether, in case of disappearance or lasting impossibility of the electors normally designated, the Church retains the means necessary to designate legitimately a successor of Peter. It will then be necessary to determine which ecclesiastical subject possesses, in such a necessity, the right and eventually the duty to proceed to this designation.

We shall also see the development of Wernz-Vidal on “the doubtful pope”.

Thus is realized the providential design of restoring the visibility of unity and the fullness of hierarchical authority.

4.6. The College of the Apostles (of the Bishops) as organ of authority.

It will then be necessary to examine whether, during a prolonged vacancy of the Apostolic See, the Catholic episcopate, considered collectively or in a morally sufficient representation, can constitute the ecclesiastical subject capable of exercising the acts necessary to the common good of the Church and to the restoration of the pontificate.

After examination of the treatises De Ecclesia, De Romano Pontifice, and of the canonists treating of the vacancy of the See, we shall be able to pose the following.

It will be necessary to establish that the highest hierarchical subject after the Roman Pontiff, inasmuch as he represents morally the Catholic episcopate and the highest administrative organ in the Church, in time of vacancy of the Apostolic See, is the College of Bishops. Practically, it is exercised by the councils of all the bishops, or at least by a morally representative assembly of the Catholic bishops (of course: validly consecrated and entirely “orthodox”, that is to say right in the faith).

So long as this college (and these councils) is not organized and therefore does not function, one must descend one step lower, that is to say each individual bishop in his possibilities, or some bishops collaborating together. It is they who presently realize, in this prolonged time of vacancy of the papal see, the government of the Church with their priests, in this sense that each bishop and priest can and must, in the measure of necessity and of his sacramental and doctrinal competence, contribute to the help of souls and of the common good of the Church.

5. The Matter of the Chapters

Since the Church is indefectible by the promise and the divine assistance, she continues to exist, but at present with few members. As a human society, she can exist only by a government; and since she is perfect, because divine, this government must function with authority, force and efficacy.

It is this extraordinary jurisdiction of necessity that the present study intends to examine. It must be carefully distinguished from the technical supply provided by canon 209, which constitutes only one of the particular mechanisms by which ecclesiastical law remedies, under determined conditions, the defect of jurisdiction.

Given that all the official organs and structures have been corrupted by infiltration of enemies and by heresies, this jurisdiction is of immediate, extraordinary and divine origin and nature.

This jurisdiction or supply is said to be “immediate” in this sense that it does not proceed from an actual delegation of a human superior (the pope), but from the divine assistance promised to the Church and from the application of her own laws in case of vacancy of the Apostolic See.

Our clergy, bishops and priests, have need of this jurisdiction in order to be able to function and to take care, as “good shepherds of their flock”; and we, true members of this clergy of the Church, must be able to prove to hesitating or perplexed confreres, and to our faithful, that it exists and that it is legitimate. Hence this study.

It will be necessary to demonstrate the heresies of a recent pope and to establish that these have entailed the cessation of his office.

Then it will be fitting to explain the functioning of this jurisdiction of supply and its extent.

Finally, it will be necessary to propose a solution in order to leave this crisis as quickly as possible, because “there is no salvation outside the Church” (dogma of the Fourth Lateran Council, constitution “Firmiter credimus” in 1215). It concerns the salvation of eight billion souls now living on the earth, for whom Our Lord Jesus Christ shed His Precious Blood, as well as the help of the innumerable souls in purgatory, who await our suffrages.

To leave this crisis as quickly as possible — this is the most important challenge and the most necessary work on the planet.

6. Conclusion

The jurisdiction of supply is not an invention nor a human self-declaration but a true and necessary divine help, fruit of the fidelity of God to His promises. It guarantees the continuity of the Church as a hierarchically constituted society, despite modern apostasy and usurpation.

In the last analysis, this jurisdiction has only one finality: the sanctification of souls and the glory of God. It manifests that, even in the most extreme trial, the Church cannot disappear nor be reduced to impotence.

“I believe… in the holy Catholic Church”!

Thus, confident in divine Providence, we await with hope the day when a true successor of Saint Peter will be given to the Church, rendering fully visible her unity and her strength, for the salvation of the greatest number of souls.

Let us pray without ceasing for the flourishing of the Church, Mystical Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eric Jacqmin+

Priest of the Catholic Church

In advance I submit myself to the definitive judgment of the Church on all my writings.

“Roma locuta, causa finita”

(Saying attributed to Saint Augustine, derived from sermon 131,10.)

Amen! Alleluia!

List of Sources

Saint Augustine, Enchiridion, chapter 11.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, I, question 2, article 3, ad 1.

Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, 1 November 1885.

Saint Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice, book II, chapter 12 and chapter 30, in De Controversiis, original edition Ingolstadt, 1588.

Thomas de Vio Cajetanus, De comparatione auctoritatis Papae et Concilii, chapters XIX-XXII and XX-XXI, in Scripta theologica, volume I, edition Vincentius M. Iacobus Pollet, O.P., Rome, Institutum “Angelicum”, 1936, Latin.

X. Wernz and P. Vidal, Ius Canonicum, volume II, De Personis, 3rd edition, Rome, Typis Pontificiae Universitatis Gregorianae, 1943, numbers 248, 378-380, pages 312 and 439-441, Latin.

Francis S. Miaskiewicz, Supplied Jurisdiction According to Canon 209: An Historical Synopsis and Commentary, Catholic University of America Canon Law Studies, number 122, Washington, D.C., The Catholic University of America Press, 1940, pages 24-28, English.

Scriptural references cited: Genesis 3,15; John 15,5; Matthew 7,7; Luke 11,9; Canticle of Canticles 6,3 and 6,9.

Roman Catechism.

Apostles’ Creed.

1. Overview – Supplied Jurisdiction during Sede Vacante